/follow command

[Karyuu]

But that\'s horribly boring ;) And what if you\'re exploring the hills with someone, along curvy trails? The thread DaveG and Nilrem linked to had good suggestions - have /follow require people being in a group, with the leader offering the /follow option to the potential follower. Less chance of abuse that way. But there is a slight problem I haven\'t seen addressed yet - the main reason for wanting the /follow command is to make chatting easier. Yet one person still has to lead, right? That person won\'t be following anyone, so he or she will still have to stop occasionally to type, or form replies. So what\'s the point, exactly? :)

[DaveG]

Originally posted by Karyuu
the main reason for wanting the /follow command is to make chatting easier. Yet one person still has to lead, right? That person won\'t be following anyone, so he or she will still have to stop occasionally to type, or form replies.

Yep, you hit the nail on the head with that one...    That\'s one of the reasons why I think a way point based auto-run system is needed.  Basically, just the mouse-run that\'s in now, but each click adds a point instead of replaces the existing one.  You\'d still have to keep clicking, but you could map out your immediate course all at once.  (Thus, allowing talking while walking similar to now, but on curvy paths instead of just straight.)  The leader could be making the path, but still typing, and the others could just follow along using \"/follow\".  I think both concepts have their uses.

[Karyuu]

I like that suggestion. Don\'t see how it could detract from RP in any way, since it is just moving your character from one place to another with a route already planned out (as people commonly plan this out IRL). So this has my thumbs up, for whatever it\'s worth.

[Nilrem]

Originally posted by DaveG

(here\'s a link to the other thread on the subject)
 

Amazing.

/me runs to find a pencil
/me takes it and talks to it: \"When they said: \'you\'re a diamond yet to be polished\' I thought they were referring to me! So, then it was you?\"
/me shackes his head
The pencil smirks while nodding back

[hramrach]

As discussed earlier, it is nearly impossible to follow somebody _and_ talk or look around. Maybe a few very skilled people can do that.
But if I understand it correctly, this game is for people that are at least average at interacting with computers and want to join PS. If it is only for poeple that can and wish develop special typing skills then I will find another one.


I do not see much potential for abuse in /follow.

After all, you never know where the person is really going unless you made some arrangement before you started to follow and you can trust the leader.

If somebody is annoying by following you and shouting something there are several options. For one, you can lead the follower into a group of monsters. Second, there should be some /ignore so that you can avoid people shouting all the time in some places that you visit often. And /ignore should could also give the added effect that the person cannot follow you, in addition not being able to talk to you.

And since I can see /follow as an possibility to ask something random passer-by you could not achieve this if you could only follow poeple that offer leadership to you. And if you want to look at it from the \"realistic\" perspective one does not have to offer leadership for others to follow IRL.

The problem that the leader has to stop to reply is a little glitch but /follow at least allows conversation when walking. And it could be avoided by some waypoint system.

And trains of people are not really necessary. You can choose to walk next to the leader when following or even configure custom follow \"formation\".

[Karyuu]

Actually I see nothing wrong with \"trains\" of people. While playing Ryzom, for example, I noticed wandering groups of NPCs that traveled through the wilderness, which players could try to merge into to avoid creatures that would attack a smaller group. Trains, or any other formation, are realistic. While moving down a tiny path, or around a steep cliff, people will have to walk one-by-one, one-after-another anyway. And again, have the leader offer the command to the others in his/her group - if someone wants to stalk, they will have to rely on their own tracking skills.

[DaveG]

Originally posted by Nilrem

Originally posted by DaveG

(here\'s a link to the other thread on the subject)
 

Amazing.

/me runs to find a pencil
/me takes it and talks to it: \"When they said: \'you\'re a diamond yet to be polished\' I thought they were referring to me! So, then it was you?\"
/me shackes his head
The pencil smirks while nodding back

Congrats on confusing me...  

Originally posted by hramrach
I do not see much potential for abuse in /follow.

No, there is great potential for laziness...  I think the other thread on this subject should convince you of that.


While we\'re on the subject, I had a better idea today.    How about all main paths and roads were given a special designation in the code, and you could basically have a \"snap-to\" mode.  Press the auto-run button on a designated path, and you\'ll just keep walking on that path, regardless of curves.  When you get to a junction, you would pause, and hit left, right, forward, or whatever.  This would allow for some degree of automation on commonly traveled paths.  If you want to go off-road, then you?ll need to ?think? more, so it?s fine to require a pause to talk.  If we ever get wagons and the like, this would be the perfect control scheme for them.

If the above feature were implemented, then the \"/follow\" command could be restricted to towns only, or something like that.  (Thus, restricting it to giving tours.)  Though, if we want to add some more NPC interactivity, we would need a similar command to order them around.  The short-range way-points system would still be useful, to some degree.

[Andrek]

I breezed over most of these... I will read more detail as I have time..

There is always the \"Money Train\" aspect of it.  Pay a guide to lead you where you want to go.  Now when you come across dangerous territory (ie in the temple) if you are not there to take control of you character it will probably die (this should be implimented)  That way you will still need to be at your node instead of \"laziness\".  As well you can have larger creatures that potentially kill groups.  You will need to be there to keep safe, as IRL if you are on a tour and a mugger jumps out you would do your own thing (attack, run, pee your pants and drop).  The leader would do thier thing and most likely will not tell everyone what to do as they cannot.  Put a stipulation in that if a member of the train/group is attacked the follow is immediately disbanded until the threat is gone.

Just an idea

I like a /follow command

[hramrach]

Originally posted by DaveG

Originally posted by hramrach
I do not see much potential for abuse in /follow.

No, there is great potential for laziness...  I think the other thread on this subject should convince you of that.

I haven\'t seen it misused in Runuscape. I haven\'t played it much, though.

Anyway, if you get /ignore and /drop you should get rid of annoying followers. And if passively following poeple become too widespread I guess some related jokes will get widespread as well and will weed them out again

[DaveG]

Originally posted by hramrach
Runuscape

1)  /me whacks hramrach with the idiot wand for his bad spelling
2)  /me waits for someone to yell at him for mentioning that game...

[Andrek]

Sorry DaveG, but we are going to draw upon the same crowd that plays the game of which you cannot speak.  They like the game because it is a free enviroment.  I stopped because I could not level with skills I wanted to... and the community was not the best.  Some people were great but I did not have the feeling that I needed to stay.

I do like the follow command in that game

Could we set it up like a group, the follow needs to be offered and accepted?  Therefor no auto follows!

[Wired_Crawler]

Originally posted by Andrek
Could we set it up like a group, the follow needs to be offered and accepted?  Therefor no auto follows!

It is amazing, how good results you can get by reversing somebody\'s thought. I like it.

[Karyuu]

But this has been suggested already multiple times in this thread, and the previous thread as well. Not a new idea ;)

[Wired_Crawler]

Argh. True. But I was so excited, that I forgot to click \"search\" before posting reply .
Anyway, It  looks, like ppl generally agree, that \"/follow\" or \"/follow_me\" is a good thing. So do I.

[Andrek]

Originally posted by Karyuu
But this has been suggested already multiple times in this thread, and the previous thread as well. Not a new idea

Originally posted by Wired_Crawler

Originally posted by Andrek
Could we set it up like a group, the follow needs to be offered and accepted?  Therefor no auto follows!

It is amazing, how good results you can get by reversing somebody\'s thought. I like it.

I am sorry that I restated.  I did not read all of it... sorry time restraint.

But this should serve as evidence that a follow command could do well....  I will search for the reasoning now...